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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25776430">Release</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_irish_mayhem/pseuds/the_irish_mayhem'>the_irish_mayhem</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Spark Within [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, Past Aang/Katara (Avatar), Past Relationship(s), Post-Break Up</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:36:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,945</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25776430</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_irish_mayhem/pseuds/the_irish_mayhem</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As it turns out, their visions for the future were unshared.</p><p>Or: Katara and Aang start their own paths of healing after their breakup.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Toph Beifong, Aang &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Katara &amp; Suki (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Spark Within [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759237</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>93</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Katara</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Listen my homies. I love Aang. I love my sweet airbending boy a lot. I just don’t think he and Katara are right for each other--that doesn’t mean their relationship was toxic or abusive.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>102 AG</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Year of the Dog</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>The South Pole</strong>
</p><p>
  <span>Summer at the South Pole turns the landscape around her home into a completely different world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara likes to sit on the high exposed rock with her legs dangling over the cliff edge and look out over her growing village and the lands beyond. It’s easy to forget herself for a while up here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sun graces the sky for nearly the full day, never fully setting and bathing the continent in sunlight. The sun glints off the sea, the sparkling ribbons of water disrupted by icebergs large and small. Glaciers recede inland and expose rich soil and barren rock underneath. Colorful lichens and mosses spread across the ground, and later in the season stiff-stalked grasses and berry bushes push up through the dirt. The camel yak herds have started to replenish since the end of the war and have begun to traverse their ancestral migration patterns. A small herd of them graze on the lichens near the shoreline.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing is so blindingly hopeful as new growth of the warm season in the South Pole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A stiff, cold breeze blows from behind her, from the part of her nation that never unfreezes, and a shiver goes down Katara’s back. It brings with it the sound of otter penguin calls, and everything she’s trying to forget comes rushing back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His proposal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The painstakingly carved pendant that she still wants to cry thinking about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And the answer that leaped to her lips almost as soon as he finished his question: no. Emphatically, but painfully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Katara!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turns back to the path--it’s Suki. It’s still strange to see her in something other than Earth Kingdom green or her Kyoshi armor, but the indigo tiger-sealskin jacket and trousers look good on her. The necklace she wears is rare to see on someone not of the Water Tribe--a hunting chain of wolf and polar bear dog teeth. It’s usually given to a hunter after they’ve had five successful hunts and shared the subsequent spoils with the village. Katara hadn’t been in the village for most of the last two years, but apparently Suki had made quite a name for herself as a capable hunter, despite not being Water Tribe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s struck with a fierce stab of longing that she could’ve been here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sokka wanted me to come find you. The council wants to talk to you about the bending school.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Katara says absently, eyes still dancing over the landscape, barely able to absorb Suki’s words.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No, Aang. I can’t marry you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tears welling in his eyes.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The confusion on his face.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m sorry. I can’t do this anymore.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki pauses before she sits down next to Katara. “Are you… okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Katara says brusquely and moves to stand. “I--yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki catches her arm before she can rise. “They don’t need us just yet. We have some time if you want to talk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She hasn’t really done that yet--aside from her weeping, barely coherent rambling after she saw Sokka when she got off the boat a few months ago. It wasn’t pretty, and she’d barely known how she herself was feeling, let alone being able to voice those thoughts to anyone else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To be honest, she still doesn’t know if she can, but she’s in a place where she can at least try. And as much as she loves her brother, this seems like something that might be easier to talk to Suki about. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The penguin-otters,” Katara says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They remind me of Aang.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that’s… bad?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara nods, then winces. “Well, not… not bad, just--” She makes a sound of frustration. “I can’t really think of the words.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A silent beat passes before Suki says, “Remember when I went to the Fire Nation to protect Zuko after the war?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The abrupt change in topic throws Katara for a loop, but she replies anyway, “Of course. I was nearly right behind you.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>But I stayed with Aang instead of helping a friend in need. </span>
  </em>
  <span>A bitterness tinges the back of her throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki looks like she knows exactly where Katara’s train of thought has gone, but doesn’t linger on it. “Sokka and I broke up before I left.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara’s eyes widen as she turns her whole body to face Suki. “Wait, what?” Sokka had only said they were having trouble with the distance, never that they’d actually broken it off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bizarrely, Suki is smiling. The sun lights up her face, her gray-blue eyes shining like the ocean. “Yeah. It didn’t really last long, but I still remember how it felt. Don’t worry about using the right words,” she says, “just talk. It’s like lancing an infected wound. It hurts, and a lot of nasty stuff might pour out, but it’ll feel better afterwards.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara grimaces at the description but hopes that Suki’s metaphor is apt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t even know where to start.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The otter-penguins,” Suki suggests, “They reminded you of Aang.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, penguin sledding was the first thing he wanted to do when he came out of the iceberg,” Katara says. “I don’t know; up until now it was such a good memory. One of the first really good days I’d had in a long, long time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not a good memory anymore?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, it’s good but just… different now. It’s like there’s a different color painted over it. And it’s like that with </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Everything we did, every good memory we made.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you were happy when you were with him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki probably didn’t mean for that to be a complex question, but it is. “I thought I was. Until he asked me to marry him and I had this moment where it was crystal clear to me that the life I was living wasn’t actually making me happy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s why you broke up with him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess. And honestly, I don’t want to get married yet. I’m only sixteen,” she says, and realizes as soon as she says it that if she hadn’t traveled, hadn’t fought in the war, had stayed in the village without finding Aang, she’d probably already be married.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t have to get married yet,” Suki says, “or ever, even.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara sighs and taps her heels back against the cliff face. “Maybe someday. With the right person.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You will marry a powerful bender.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>When Aunt Wu had told her that, she’d been excited. Assured, even. It had been a sign that her life might eventually find its way back to the vision she’d always had for it. Before she met Aang, she thought that she would marry a nice waterbending man, maybe from the North, and settle down in the South. Then she and Aang happened, and--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I could never really picture our future,” Katara says, realization dawning over her. “Aang could. He talked about it all the time. But what he saw I never could. Whenever he talked about getting married and having kids, I went along with it but I never… it was like I was never </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> a part of it, you know? I just agreed because I wanted to protect him. I was just always, always protecting him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That must have been tiring,” Suki says, “feeling like you’re constantly protecting someone who is supposed to be a partner.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I never thought of it that way,” Katara says, but realizes that Suki may have just hit the proverbial nail on the head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were always the caretaker of the group,” Suki says, and leans over to bump her shoulder against Katara’s. “That was the dynamic you always had with Aang, too. I guess it’s not too surprising that that carried over into your relationship with him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just don’t know how else to be with him,” she replies. “I do love him. I’m just…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not </span>
  <em>
    <span>in love</span>
  </em>
  <span> with him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara nods, her voice shaky when she finally answers, “I never wanted to hurt him.” If she has any regrets about her decision, it’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Romantic relationship or not, Aang is one of her favorite people in the whole world; he’s one of her best friends, and he is the reason she’s become the person she is now. He was her avenue to getting a waterbending master to teach her, to taking an active role in the war, to seeing the world from the back of a sky bison… She quite simply cannot imagine her life now without him in it, but that appears to be what she may have to get used to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki shrugs. “Some hurts are unavoidable. With all that emotional protection you were giving him, he might never have to grow as a person. You’re pushing the baby sparrowkeet out of the nest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki’s gaze is intense when she says, “You shouldn’t beat yourself up for looking after your own happiness for once.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A defense leaps to her tongue but doesn’t come out. Is that really what she’s doing? The last few months have been emotionally tumultuous, to say the least, and Katara has been more focused on helping the tribe than sorting through everything that’s been plaguing her heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And even if it doesn’t feel like it right now,” Suki continues, “Aang will forgive you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about me forgiving him?” Katara whispers unconsciously, and almost slaps a hand over her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki looks surprised. “Are you angry at him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara’s stomach churns, and she pulls her legs up to her chest. Her forehead drops down to her knees. “Forget I said that,” she murmurs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Suki replies. “Not if it’s what you really feel. Stop holding back so much, Katara. You never used to do that.” A beat passes before she adds, “It’s perfectly fine to be mad at your ex. You have to stop trying to shield him from things that might hurt him. He’s not even here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few heavy, almost awkward minutes pass as Katara tries to calm her racing heartbeat and discern what exactly it is that’s making her feel like this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, she gets it. She raises her face from her knees. “I am mad,” she admits softly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki nods, encouraging.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m mad at him for asking me to marry him, and I’m mad at myself for turning him down,” she continues, her voice growing in volume and vehemence, “I’m mad that I got together with him in the first place, and I am especially mad that I spent two years doing whatever he wanted to do and that I wasn’t here helping to rebuild, or that I didn’t go to the Fire Nation when Zuko needed his friends--” Katara cuts herself off when her voices starts to echo a little too loudly and takes a deep breath. With a huff, she throws her legs back over the edge and flops backwards so that she’s laying down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think he’s a bad person,” Katara says, “but Spirits, I am so mad at him, and I’m sad that we can’t ever go back to the way things were. It’s always going to be at least a little bit weird.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki leans back with her, mirroring her position and turning her head. “Not always. For a while, maybe. But eventually, time’s going to smooth away the rough edges. That’s just the real rub of it though--it just takes time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I want it now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki chuckles. “Tough luck.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They lay there for a silent minute, the blue sky clear as they stare up at it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” Katara eventually says. “It’s good to finally talk about it. I wish I would’ve sooner. Steeping in my own head for that long probably wasn’t that great.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki shakes her head with a soft smile on her face. “No. You have to wait until you’re ready to talk about these things. It doesn’t happen all at once.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara pulls herself back into a sitting position and looks down at Suki, who is smiling up at her, expression soft. She is struck by a stab of affection going through her. She doesn’t love Suki just because Sokka does.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Katara were ever to have had a sister, she’d want them to be like Suki. She supposes, with a grin on her face, that she will have a sister like Suki eventually. At least once Sokka is satisfied with his carving skills enough to ask her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on,” Katara says. She stands and holds a hand out to Suki. “We should go. Bending school to talk about and all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suki reaches up and pulls herself to her feet. “I can’t wait to see you make mincemeat of Master Pakku.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara laughs. “It’ll be a bloodbath,” she promises.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They begin the walk side by side. Suki replies, “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Aang</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>102 AG</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Year of the Dog</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Gaoling, The Earth Kingdom</strong>
</p><p>
  <span>He should’ve known Toph wouldn’t be great at this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um,” she says after he tearfully spills the story to her, “there, there?” She awkwardly pats his shoulder a few times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re in one of the many private gardens on the Beifong estate seated side by side on a stone bench, and even the smell of the fresh spring blooms can’t pull him out of the dark chasm he’s in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang sniffles. The worst part is that all he wants right now is Katara’s comfort. Even before she was his girlfriend, she always seemed to know how to make him feel better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just don’t understand what I did wrong,” he says. “Did she ever say anything to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not to me,” Toph answers, seemingly more confident with answering direct questions than trying to handle his emotional state.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But we both heard Aunt Wu’s prophecy!” he bursts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What prophecy?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That Katara is destined to marry a powerful bender!” Aang tells her. “That’s supposed to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph snorts. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> a powerful bender,” she says, “Zuko is a powerful bender. Huu is a powerful bender. Heck, even Azula is a powerful bender. How many </span>
  <em>
    <span>powerful benders</span>
  </em>
  <span> did we meet while traveling? That’s not much of a prophecy, that’s just some half-decent guesswork.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But--but--” Aang stutters before he recovers himself. “We love each other,” he says quietly. “Prophecies aside, shouldn’t that be enough?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph sighs and leans back, propping her head up with her arms. “You’re asking the wrong person for relationship advice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang groans. “But what do I do? I mean, we don’t really argue ever, so--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait,” Toph interrupts, “You guys never fought? You never, ever, once, </span>
  <em>
    <span>in two years</span>
  </em>
  <span> argued with Katara? The stubborn capital of the world Katara? The Katara who can hold a grudge longer than the spirits? That Katara?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang stares back. “I mean, not really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph’s silence sounds damning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Aang asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing,” Toph says quickly. Too quickly. “It just--um. It just doesn’t seem like her, is all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, you guys never got along really well,” Aang says, unthinking. He winces, correcting himself before Toph can let loose. “Sorry, that isn’t true.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph replies, “At the beginning, yeah. That’s what happens when opposing personalities collide.” She huffs a breath. “But that doesn’t mean we didn’t eventually come to an understanding. That only comes with </span>
  <em>
    <span>fighting</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang nods. “But… me and Katara didn’t need to fight because we aren’t opposing personalities.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph sighs. “Look, Aang, I’ll indulge whatever breakup talk you want, but I’m not going to sit here and lie to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That startles him. “I’d never ask you to lie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You wouldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>ask</span>
  </em>
  <span> me to lie,” Toph says, “but I think there’s still a part of you that’s always scared to hear a hard truth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turns eagerly towards her. “No, please tell me what you want to say.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph doesn’t move, just turns her head. “Okay, you really want to know?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang nods. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sits forward once more. “Alright then. I have two words: Yon. Rha.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang hasn’t heard that name since Katara took Zuko off on that ill-advised revenge mission. “What about it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you not remember how all that went down? Katara never forgave him, much to your chagrin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But she never killed him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not the point,” Toph replies. “She needed a type of closure that you can’t understand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, I can understand loss better than almost anyone,” Aang says defensively. And that’s another thing, isn’t it? Another deep ache that he thought he could shoulder with her--she’s the last waterbender of the South. He’s the last airbender. The pain of losing his people is a wound that will never heal over, but sharing that with Katara felt--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It felt at least like he wasn’t so alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not saying you can’t,” Toph says, holding her hands up. “But you and Katara are just different.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why is that a bad thing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not, so long as you can fight and come to an understanding. If you never fought, then…” Toph shrugs and flops back down on the bench. “Like I said, I’m not the romantic type. I’ve got nothing aside from saying ‘It sucks it didn’t work out.’ You both are my friends. I never want to see either of you get hurt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang mulls over Toph’s words. Would fighting with Katara have made anything better? He can’t think of anything he would’ve argued with her about, though. They traveled together, helped people after the war, started restoring the Northern Air Temple, and Katara always seemed happy. It was… it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>perfect</span>
  </em>
  <span>. What could he ever have fought her on?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think--” He swallows. “Do you think I could fix it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph shrugs again. “You should ask someone who’s been through at least one breakup. Which, you know, I haven’t been.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I want to hear what you think, Toph.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes close and she smiles softly. “I don’t think the problem was with you fighting with her. I think she never wanted to fight with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That makes Aang come up short. She never… wanted to fight him?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sugar Queen’s opinionated,” Toph says, “but she’s always been softer with you. There’s no way some stuff didn’t build up if she wasn’t yelling at you about it at least once.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose that makes sense,” Aang says slowly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At the end of the day, the only person who knows why she did it is Katara. You could just ask her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang feels another stab of longing for the days when he could’ve asked Katara anything. Now there’s another sting of sadness that he feels hesitation, trepidation, </span>
  <em>
    <span>dread</span>
  </em>
  <span> at ever speaking to Katara again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’ll never be able to forget the slow, dawning look of horror on her face as his earnest question sunk in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her decisive rejection.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No, Aang. I can’t marry you. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Her immediate flight back to the South Pole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not a word from her since.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s tried very hard to not think about it too much, and if he does, he has to consider it in the context that this is just a small hiccup. A bump in the road on the way to their destiny. She’s his forever girl, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d always thought she felt the same. It’s--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If he hasn’t been taking her feelings into account, then--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll give her space,” he says finally. “She--that’s what she must have wanted.” It feels like a knife to his belly to say it, to let the girl he loves go. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(But isn’t that what everyone has told him all along?)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He still has a long way to go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph grins. “Probably a good call, Twinkle Toes.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aang doesn’t stay long in Gaoling. Toph offers her company if he wants it, but for the first time in his life, he’d rather be alone. He, Appa, and Momo travel around the Earth Kingdom solo for a few weeks, helping where he can and settling disputes wherever he goes. He starts and discards no less than seven different letters to Katara, each sounding worse than the last until he balls them up in frustration and sets them ablaze.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He makes one last stop in Kyoshi. Suki is gone--at the South Pole, apparently, and Aang is absurdly jealous for a few heated moments. He wants to go to the South Pole. He wants to go see Sokka and Suki and--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He breathes. Once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Release.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The knot of tension eases, and leaves behind a stinging memory. He isn’t normally like this. He doesn’t get jealous like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Jealousy is a shadow of anger.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Monk Gyatso’s voice is still fresh in his mind. He fears the day he might lose it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flashes of anger and impatience confirm his next destination for him, and before long he touches down inside the Caldera in the Fire Nation capital.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he arrives, Zuko is in a meeting with his Ministry. The attendants who’d received him offer to fetch the Fire Lord right away, but Aang gently declines, saying that he’s happy to wait until Zuko is finished. They offer refreshments that Aang is all too happy to partake in; he’s soon seated in a tearoom with a plate of spicy eggplant dumplings and a pot of oolong tea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s finished about half the plate of dumplings when the door to the tearoom slides open, revealing a frazzled Fire Lord. His topknot is a bit messy, his longer hair spilling out of the bun and falling over his forehead and cheeks. He’s dressed down compared to when Aang saw him last--the formal robes with the massive, spiked epaulettes have been replaced with more sedate outfit. Still befitting of a sovereign of a nation, the richly dyed red and maroon silk and chirimen is accented with gold thread. At his shoulders are leather pauldrons, finely trimmed with gold, and matched to the gauntlets on his forearms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang says, a little blunt, “Zuko, you look </span>
  <em>
    <span>tired</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Surprisingly, Zuko barks out a laugh. “You have no idea.” He drops down cross-legged across from Aang at the table. “Mind if I have some of your tea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang pushes both the tea and the dumplings across the tabletop. “An airbender never turns away a hungry or parched guest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That earns him a small smile. “Thanks.” He takes a spare cup and pours himself a serving and takes a deep pull. “So what brings you to the Fire Nation?” Zuko asks as he places his cup back on the table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang feels a blush rising. “Well, I’m sure you heard about me and Katara…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko nods. “Yeah. I’m sorry. Breakups aren’t fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Understatement,” Aang says. “Toph said something that made me think. Well,” he amends, “she said a lot of things that made me think. But she said that I should talk to someone who’s been through a breakup.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko reaches for a dumpling. “So you’re here for sage relationship advice and not to visit your dear, dear friend?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, of course I’m here to see you too!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just kidding.” Zuko takes a bite of dumpling before reaching up to fully remove his topknot and shake his hair out. “I’m dying to hear something that isn’t how crappy the Fire Nation economy currently is and why it’s all my fault, so please continue.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang gives him the broad strokes--two years of what he thought was perfection, followed by the proposal that went sour, and Katara’s silence after going back to the South Pole without him. He doesn’t cry this time (much, anyway). It’s less fresh than it was when he’d first spilled the details to Toph, and the sharp pain has shifted to a broad tenderness, like a bad sunburn that screams if he moves wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko listens mostly without comment, refilling his tea twice and finishing off the last of the dumplings before Aang finally finishes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Talking to Toph helped,” Aang says. “There were a lot of things about our relationship that I just never realized. But I think we can work. Later on, I mean. After this blows over.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s admittedly an oversimplification to say this will blow over, but there’s a degree of comfort that comes with thinking that everything can go back to the way it was. He nearly shakes himself--no, not like before, but… better. Give Katara more space to be herself. He knows he can do it. He just hopes that Katara realizes it eventually, too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aang, I’m not sure this is just going to blow over,” Zuko says, disrupting Aang’s reverie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not?” he asks. “Did Katara say something to you? I know you guys wrote to each other.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko shakes his head. “She never said anything to me about you. Not like that, anyway. It was mostly Fire Lord stuff she was helping me with, like suggesting policy changes and initiatives that--” he shakes his head. “Not important now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It sounds to me like Katara hit a breaking point,” Zuko says, “where she just couldn’t be with you anymore.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang flinches.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know it sounds harsh,” Zuko says, sympathy warming his tone, “but if she’s hit one, I don’t know if you’re going to be able to talk her out of it, or wait until it ‘blows over.’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How can you be so sure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because I’m the same way,” Zuko says. “It’s like when I was with Mai. It got to a point that I just couldn’t be with her anymore. We didn’t fit, not like we had before.” He chuckles a little. “If we ever actually fit as well as I remember is up for debate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was over long before I found out about her family trying to have me killed,” he says, so offhand that it breaks Aang’s heart a little bit, “but that was just throwing dirt on an already buried coffin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There has to be hope,” Aang says, aware that his voice sounds a little desperate but unable to help it. “I love her. I love her so much. I never wanted to hurt her, not ever. That has to mean something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko says, “Sure it does, but you’re fourteen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko looks at him as though the answer is obvious. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>So</span>
  </em>
  <span> the girl I thought I was in love with when I was fourteen lied to me about her family’s involvement in trying to assassinate me and starting a coup, so yeah, I’d say maybe my judgement wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> great.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My judgement is just fine!” Aang defends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In some things,” Zuko says carefully. He runs a hand through his hair once. “You can’t really be in a relationship unless your partner is one hundred percent with you, and it sounds like Katara is absolutely </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang somehow hadn’t realized until this moment how much he’d held onto Aunt Wu’s prediction as gospel. Toph had poked holes in it, but once Zuko puts it in those words, it’s almost as though he can feel himself deflating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara isn’t with him. She wasn’t with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not in the way that would’ve mattered. Not in the way that would’ve made them last.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You will marry a powerful bender.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang believes in destiny. He’s the Avatar--of course he believes in destiny. But--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the first time, he thinks that perhaps he isn’t Katara’s. Perhaps she isn’t his.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That realization is like raking a hot coal over his skin, like taking a spear to the chest, like dropping into the ocean and realizing he can’t swim or bend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s been his foundation since he came out of the iceberg. She’s been his sanctuary since he found out the Air Nomads had been wiped out. He’s been dependent on her for so much--taking care of him, teaching him waterbending, being his romantic partner--and now that foundation, that sanctuary, is gone. It might never be replaced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s hard,” Zuko acknowledges. “Believe me, I know; but it will get easier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite considering that he’d had this destiny thing wrong after all, there’s still only one thing in his mind. “I just want her back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko looks down at his tea. “Then you might have to wait for her to start that conversation.” He takes another sip of the oolong. “You’re welcome to stay,” he says. “As long as you need it, you’ll have a place here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang nods slightly. “I might stay for a little while, but…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko silently watches Aang struggle with himself for a few silent moments before he finishes, “I might go back to the Northern Air Temple.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Where everything went wrong. Where Katara decided they were finished. They’d been in the midst of planning the restoration--with the Mechanist’s help, along with Teo, Pipsqueak, and the Duke--when he’d proposed. He’d thought it would be romantic, proposing in the middle of planning their future together. Where they’d start the new Air Nation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighs. Regardless, he would like to see the temples restored. It’d be silly to run from that goal now when the plans are already in place, some of the renovations already started.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko nods. “That sounds like a great idea,” he says softly. “If you need any help with it, you only need to ask.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thoughtful words aren’t empty--Aang knows that if he really needed it, Zuko would show up himself to help repair the temples that his ancestors once raided.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(And that’s something rather strange and wonderful all at once. Zuko’s family line is soaked in airbender blood, but here he is now offering to help rebuild what was destroyed.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang floats himself up and over the table and deposits himself next to Zuko to give his friend a hug. “Thanks, Zuko.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko tenses, but only for a moment before relaxing and returning it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, Aang,” he answers softly. “Anytime.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>come yell at me on tumblr if you feel so inclined </p><p>@the-irish-mayhem</p></blockquote></div></div>
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